College Memories Part One: The Prank War
by Lady Dragonryder
Summary: An old friend of Peter's, Ray's and Egon's from Columbia returns from England. Humor ensures.


_Author's Note: I wrote this, not because I expect people to like it, but because I like the premise. Please don't flame me. Compliments? Hell yes, bring 'em on. Constructive criticism? Go ahead, I appreciate it. But no flames, please and thanks. This is more RGB than movie Ghostbusters, too. I was extremely bored and started day-dreaming and this is what popped in there, so it IS a bit of a Mary-Sue. Also, this takes place about a year after Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II hasn't happened._

_DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Ghostbusters. The prank ideas, and the character of Robin Carlisle belong to me (well technically, I AM Robin, but that's beside the point.) This is going to be more than one chapter, and it will have a sequel. The sequel will have more Winston and Janine to it, but since they weren't around at Columbia, they aren't in it all that much. Even though the later chapters are taking place in 'current' times, I couldn't think how to work them in well, so they aren't in it, again I sincerely apologize. I like them, but they don't fit in as well. The story may be confusing at first, but it's like this:_

_--if you see a  
-!-!-!-  
then it is going into or out of a flashback._

_--if you see a  
!!  
it is going to another scene in the same time period (Ghostbusters or Columbia)_

_Without further ado, I present…_

**COLLEGE MEMORIES**

Chapter 1: A Happy Reunion

"Ghostbusters," Janine Melnitz answered the phone at the Ghostbusters firehouse.

"May I please speak to Dr. Spengler?" a female voice on the other end spoke. Janine's eyes narrowed.

"May I ask who's calling?" Janine asked with more than a hint of suspicion. She had a large crush on Egon, and was very protective of him. The woman laughed.

"My name's Robin Carlisle. I'm a friend of his, Ray's, and Peter's from Columbia. I haven't seem them since I was forced to move to England by my parents 3 years ago, but I'm back in town. I wanted to surprise Peter and Ray, and was hoping Egon could help. I was Peter's girlfriend, so you can stop worrying, I'm not stealing Egon from you," she said, chuckling.

Janine chuckled herself. "Alright, let me go tell him. I take it you don't want me to mention this to Ray or Dr. V?" she asked.

"If you don't mind, that would be helpful," Robin said.

Janine put the phone down and went to find Egon. He was working in his lab, unsurprisingly, and started when she tapped him on the shoulder.

"Egon," she said, "you have a telephone call."

"Janine, I'm a little busy," the blonde responded patiently. "Could you have them call back?"

"If the story she gave me is true, you're really gonna want to take this call," Janine responded. Sighing, Egon set down his tools.

"Alright. Who is it?" He asked wearily. Janine chuckled.

"She said she's a friend of yours, Ray's, and Peter's from Columbia, her name's Robin," she said. She was extremely shocked when Egon jumped up out of his chair and dashed to the phone.

"Robin!?" he said into the phone. Janine had never heard him so excited. She could hear Robin's laughter from halfway across the room.

"Yeah, Spengs, it's me," Robin said laughing. Egon's face broke into a huge smile.

"We haven't heard from you in years! What have you been doing!?"

Robin's voice sobered quickly. "Trying to earn enough money to high-tail my ass back to New York," she said dryly. "I finally did it."

As Robin's last 4 words sunk in, Egon's eyes widened. "Where are you now!? You've got to come visit!"

"At the moment," she said calmly, "I am sitting in my car, talking on a cell phone, right outside a rather distinctive firehouse that has a ghost in a prohibition sign hanging over the door."

"WHAT!?" Egon yelled, "Are you serious?"

"Yes, Egon. I'm right outside your door. I want to surprise Peter and Ray, so could you please do me a favor?"

"Sure, Robin. What did you have in mind?"

"RAY! EGON! DR. V! WE HAVE A CLIENT, GET DOWN HERE!" Janine yelled from her desk. A figure in a raincoat with a hood covering her face stood by Janine's desk. As the three called came downstairs (Ray via the fire-pole), she turned toward them. Peter approached her first.

"Hi, I'm—" he was cut off by the woman.

"Peter Venkman, yes, I know. And Ray Stantz," she added indicating the redhead, "and Egon Spengler," she motioned toward the blonde.

"I guess we're getting some publicity if you can tell that!" Peter joked. The woman laughed.

"It has nothing to do with publicity, Peter. I know a lot about the three of you."

"Oh really?" Peter said. Ray raised a skeptical eyebrow as well.

"Alright then. Peter, you are terrified of bugs, cockroaches in particular. Ray, you are an expert in the occult. Egon, you were visited by the Bogeyman as a child, and were his favorite victim. All of you were involved in a prank war in college with a girl named Robin Carlisle. Is that proof enough?"

During this whole time, Peter and Ray's eyes had been growing wider as she hit nail after nail on the head. Finally, Ray spoke up. "Alright, who are you and how do you know all this stuff about us?" The woman nearly fell down laughing.

As she regained her composure she said, with a wicked edge to her voice, "I should hope I know most of those things about you. After all, I _was_ part of that prank war." As she spoke the last words, she lowered her hood to reveal the grinning face of Robin Carlisle.

Peter's jaw went slack and Ray's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. Then, as one, they seemed to come back to their senses. "ROBIN!" Peter yelled, and they both engulfed her in a hug. Robin hugged them back tightly. Then she turned to Egon and hugged him too.

"Thank you for getting these two down here, Spengs," she said. "You too, Janine. I could have gotten them without your help, but you made it so much easier." That was the Robin they knew, not modest at all but in a teasing way.

"Ok, someone want to introduce me to your friend?" said a new voice from behind them. They turned to see Winston Zeddemore standing on the stairs.

"Oh! Winston, this is Robin Carlisle. She went to Columbia with us, we were good friends. Well, she and Peter were a bit more," he added with a wicked grin. Robin whacked him on the head.

"Robin, this is Winston Zeddemore, our fourth member," Egon said, ignoring Ray's last comment. Robin smiled.

"I know who he is; you boys defeating Gozer made headlines all the way in Europe!" Robin said teasingly. Smiling, she walked up to Winston. "Thanks for keeping these three in line while I wasn't around—I know from experience they can be tough to handle!"

At that last, the three in question blurted, "HEY!" and lunged at her.

A little later, the five of them had gathered in the living room area of the firehouse (Janine having gone home for the evening.) Peter looked over at Robin.

"What have you been up to since you moved?" Peter asked. He knew immediately it had upset her.

"I missed you. I was ready to kill my parents when we had to move, but you've met them—stubborn assholes, both of 'em." She said sadly. "But I missed our dates, our days of studying together, the four of us, and the…well, funnily enough I miss the jokes most of all," she said rather embarrassed.

Peter snorted with laugher, Ray grinned happily, and Egon's blue eyes twinkled merrily. Winston was confused. "Jokes? Someone want to fill me in?"

At that Robin bust out laughing, followed by her three old schoolmates. As she regained control, Robin said, "The four of us have a long history of…well, of practical jokes. On each other. Quite amusing in hindsight, but not so much so when you were the victim."

"Oh, now this is a story I HAVE to hear!!" Winston laughed. Robin and Peter exchanged smiles, ready to spend the entire night reminiscing.

"Well, the four of us met when Egon was a Junior, Peter and I were Sophomores, and Ray was a Freshman in college. Peter and I were in a parapsychology class together, and Spengs here was the teacher's pet—oops, sorry Egon, aide. It started one day when Peter and I were working in class…."

_-!-!-!-_

"Alright class, now we'll be working in our groups today, on our current experiment. I don't want any disruptions! Go, now!" Professor Borand said to the Parapsychology 101 class at Columbia. "Egon will be coming around to assist you, so if you need help ask him."

As he sat down, there was a flurry of movement as the students branched off into groups of two or three. One particular group consisted of Peter Venkman and Robin Carlisle. As they collected their experiment, Robin grinned. She had been looking forward to analyzing the data they had collected, as it was some new substance that had been collected at the scene of a haunting in the Upper East Side. Dubbed "Ectoslime," they were testing it's physical properties. Robin was grinning because none of the other groups had physical evidence. She had dragged Peter out to the location of this haunting to search for some evidence they could carry back with them, and they had actually been successful.

As they gathered the materials they needed, a deep bass voice said, "What is that slime substance you have collected, Ms. Carlisle?" from right behind her, making her jump. Peter snickered at her, but she merely glared at him and turned to face the blond teacher's aide.

"It's an ectoplasmic residue collected from the scene of a haunting, which we are calling 'Ectoslime' in shorthand, Mr. Spengler," she said politely. The two of them expected him to scoff and deny the existence of ghosts, so they were extremely surprised when his eyes lit up and he sat down next to her.

"You actually found physical evidence? I've been searching for any physical proof for years now!" Egon enthused, his calm demeanor forgotten.

"Uh, Mr. Spengler," Peter began, "If you're that interested, you're more than welcome to help us with some of our research, since Robin here is extremely into this ghost business. She's even making me help her outside of class with some research." Robin elbowed him in the ribs, and he shut up.

"I'd be delighted to, Peter. Please call me Egon, since we'll be working together." Egon said, and they set to work.

_-!-!-!-_

Egon smiled at the memory. "You thought I was a stiff, didn't you Peter?"

Peter had the grace to blush. "Well, yeah, but anyone would have!"

"That's cool," Winston said, interrupting, "but how did that escalate into a prank war?"

Peter grinned. "Well, we pulled some pranks, but it didn't escalate into a war, per se, until we met Ray. But anyway, there's more first. The first prank, that started it all, was of course by me—"

"With MY HELP!" Robin retorted.

"Alright, ok, by us…"

_-!-!-!-_

After a few weeks of working together, Peter and Robin were starting to realize there was more to Egon Spengler than met the eye. To the casual observer, he was a complete book-worm, studious to a fault and completely unsociable. Well, 2 out of 3 isn't bad. The first two were true, but the last was completely inaccurate. In Spengler, Peter and Robin had found a wonderful, loyal friend who would, admittedly, on occasion become wrapped up in his work. Such was the case on one particular Saturday afternoon.

"Peter, what's Egon up to now?" Robin asked her now-boyfriend. Peter sighed and shook his head.

"Damned if I know, he's been cooped up in that lab for hours on end!!" Peter said. "We need a way to get him….out!" He spoke the last word as an idea came to him. He excitedly whispered his plan to Robin, who grinned wickedly.

"Let's do it."

Egon was engrossed in his work. He was developing a machine that would, in theory, detect an ectoplasmic presence (the ancestor to the PKE Meter). As he made adjustments, he heard a door slam. Looking automatically, he saw it had been the door to his own lab. Curious, he thought, as he went to open it again. It wouldn't budge.

"Interesting," he mused, "I appear to be locked in from the outside." As he turned back to his project, he heard a loud noise not unlike one would associate with a ghost in a horror movie—indistinct moaning and rattling chains. He jumped

"Oh how ridiculous," he muttered, aggravated with his own nervousness, "You're letting your imagination get to you, Egon. Probably some student in the lounge with the TV up too loud." As he bent over his work, he could have sworn he heard a voice call his name. He shook his head and ignored it.

A few moments later, he felt a chill wind pick up. It blew his hair for a moment, then died again. He looked around, but could discover no source of the breeze. It happened again, and then he heard a distinct voice.

"Eeeeeeeegooooonnnnnnn…."

He looked around, startled. "I'm just imagining things because I'm hungry. I'll go get something to eat." He went to the door and started to examine the lock.

"Eeeeeeeegooooonnnnnnn…."

It was closer this time, but Spengler was determinedly ignoring it.

"Eeeeeeeegooooonnnnnnn…."

Now closer and louder as well, it took all of Egon's self-control not to yelp.

"EGON!"

This time it was right in his ear and accompanied by a hand dropped on his shoulder. He yelped and whirled around to see…

…Peter Venkman behind him, laughing hysterically. Beyond him, Robin was visible, holding a small fan and snickering herself. Egon raised his eyebrows and carefully did NOT smile in contentment that his friends were displaying their affection, even in a…less than excellent way.

"Venkman, Carlisle," he said slowly, advancing on his fellow parapsychologists-in-training in what he hoped was a menacing fashion. "Is this your idea of a prank?" He had to put out an effort not to smile at their panic-stricken faces. "Do you know what this MEANS?" At their small head shakes, he suddenly went from angry to grinning wickedly. "It means I WILL get revenge."

_-!-!-!-_

Winston and Ray were rolling on the floor with laughter, Egon was laughing softly and Peter and Robin were snickering themselves.

"Well? Did you get revenge?" Winston asked, intrigued.

"As Peter might say, 'No Shit, Sherlock'. I couldn't let them get away with it, could I?" Egon grinned wickedly.

"We pulled a LOT of pranks on each other, but the best ones occurred after Ray joined our group. Now THAT was a classic—the look on Ray's face!" Robin said, and everyone except Winston cracked up again.

"Alright, I'll bite. What happened?"

Ray snickered. "Well, you know I was really shy when I was a freshman, right? Well, they're the ones who stopped that shyness…."

_-!-!-!-_

Peter, Robin, and Egon were walking to their new Spring Term Parapsych class when they encountered a chubby, red-headed freshman being tormented by a few large, burly seniors. Peter looked at his friends, then went over to the bullies.

"Why don't you guys leave the freshman alone? I thought a Senior was too good to bother with a freshman, even if it is to bully him," he sneered at them. The freshman in question looked like Peter was his guardian angel. The bullies just shrugged and, with a glare at the red-head, stalked off.

"Are you ok?" Robin asked as she and Egon came up.

"Yeah, thanks. I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bug you," the red-head stammered.

"No problem at all. What's your name?" Egon said, helping him to his feet.

"Ray. Ray Stantz," he said, seeming embarrassed.

After introductions were made, Peter asked, "Where you heading, kid?"

After a quick glance at his schedule, Ray answered, "Parapsychology 101," sounding like he was embarrassed at taking the class. Peter grinned.

"What a coincidence, Ray, we are too! Why don't you come with us?" Ray blushed the color of his hair and muttered something akin to "thank you" under his breath.

Robin put an arm on his shoulders. "You interested in the paranormal then?" she asked, making small talk and trying to ease the poor boy's nerves.

Ray nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! I've always wanted to learn about that stuff! It's so interesting! I just wish we had some physical evidence! Then we could do more studies on it!" The others grinned at each other.

"Ray," Egon began, "Robin and Peter recently made some discoveries that may just be your 'physical evidence'. Why don't you join us with our experiments?"

Ray's eyes lit up. "You really mean it? I could work with you? Wow, that'd be GREAT!" All anxiety forgotten, he chatted enthusiastically with them the rest of the way to class.

Three months later found the four of them sharing an apartment and working on their paranormal studies. The practical jokes had continued, but Ray had never been a part, either as prankster or victim. One day he and Robin were alone in the apartment, and he decided to talk to her a bit.

"Robin? Are you busy," he asked nervously.

Robin looked up from her book. "Not at all Ray, what's up?"

"Well, uh, this is kinda stupid, but uh, I was wondering why you and Egon and Peter always play jokes on each other but not on me or anything?" He stammered. Robin looked genuinely surprised.

"Ray, you are the first person I have ever met who wanted to be pranked." Even as she said it, she realized his reasoning. He was feeling left out. She'd have to talk to Peter and Egon about that. She smiled at the freshman. "I'll see what I can do. But be warned, once you're in one of Venkman's prank wars, there's no way out and you WILL be pranked mercilessly."

Ray's eyes glowed as he smiled, and he said, "Yeah, I kinda discovered that after Egon got Peter the other day—blue hair is NOT his color."

A few hours later, Peter and Egon were back at the apartment and they and Robin were in the kitchen. Ray was in the living room, watching their small TV. "Guys, I think that Ray's feeling left out," Peter said to the others. Robin and Egon gaped at him.

"I was going to tell you the same thing," Robin stammered.

"As was I," Egon said, raising an eyebrow. "What should we do to help him out in feeling welcome?"

Robin grinned. "As a matter of fact, we were talking earlier. I know just the thing…"

That night, Ray went to bed thinking of his friends. They were still pretty much his only friends, and he felt rather jealous of them. They seemed more close than they were with him, and he felt a bit…left out. "If only they could give me a sign I'm not an unwelcome burden—a prank even, whatever, just so I know I'm not making them miserable!" he muttered to himself.

As he lay there, drowning in his thoughts, he thought he felt the mattress shift a bit. Frowning, he readjusted his position. Before he had even stopped moving, two hands shot up out of the mattress itself and grabbed him around the mouth and the chest. His eyes widened in terror as he heard a voice.

"Raaayyyyy…"

He tried to look around for the source of the voice, but the hands held firm.

"Raaayyyyy…"

It was closer now, and Ray felt a sense of dread he had never felt before. He didn't know what it was, but something was coming for him and he couldn't yell for Peter or Egon or Robin to help him.

"Raaayyyyy…"

It was right in his ear now and he felt the wind from it's breath on the side of his face. He shuddered involuntarily. The dark figure moved from beside his head to right next to his body, and while he lay helpless, frozen by terror as well has held in place by the hands, it leaned in toward him until it's face was almost touching his.

It opened it's mouth and while Ray's eyes were about to bug out in terror, it said, very simply, "Gotcha."

The hands released him and he heard 3 familiar laughs, one coming from the figure, one from the closet, and one from under the bed. As Ray lay there, dazed, the dark figure pulled off her hood to reveal the laughing face of Robin. Peter slid out from under his bed, and Egon emerged from the closet. All were laughing, and Ray realized with a start that it had been a joke. A prank. Pulled on him. He had gotten his wish, a sign he was wanted. As it dawned on him, his face slowly broke into a relieved smile.

"That was GREAT!" He said enthusiastically.

"SPENGS! You owe me ten bucks, I TOLD you he'd say that!" laughed Robin.

"Well, Ray," Peter spoke up, finally recovering from his laughing fit, "You asked for it!"

Ray grinned. "Yeah, I guess I did. I thought you did typical pranks, not scaring the crap out of each other, though!" This sent the four of them into helpless giggles.

_-!-!-!-_

By now all 4 Ghostbusters, plus Robin, were the floor laughing.

"Yeah, we got you good with that one Ray!" Peter snickered.

"Yeah, you did," Ray conceded happily. "Robin was great, she REALLY scared the crap out of me!"

"Yeah, but if I remember right you and Peter got me BIGTIME the next time," Robin recalled, chuckling.

"Alright, let's hear this one. I'm assuming you didn't go easy on her since she was your girlfriend, right Pete?" Winston asked. Robin burst out laughing.

"Are you kidding?" Peter asked. "I think I went harder on her for that reason!!"

"Alright, Winston, this one is a doozy. It was really funny now that I look back on it, but while it was going on I was NOT laughing. One thing you gotta know is that back then, and to an extent even now, I was a bit…well, scared of the dark." Before Winston could laugh, Egon spoke up.

"You had good reason to be scared Robin," he said. To Winston, he said, "Remember the corporeal entity we trapped a couple of weeks ago? The one I said had…visited me as a child?"

Winston frowned. "The Bogeyman? What about him?"

Robin smiled ironically. "Egon wasn't his ONLY victim—or even his only favorite. He always had two—a male and a female. Meet his favorite female victim." Then Egon's words registered. "You trapped him? For good?" She smiled. "Ok, anyway back to the topic at hand. You must know here that I didn't like the dark at all, for aforementioned reasons. They knew that, and well, had some fun with it."

_-!-!-!-_

It was a week after Ray's first prank, and it had been quiet around the apartment. Too quiet. They were all beginning to suspect something, but nothing happened. One evening, Egon and Ray weren't in, and Peter and Robin were on a date.

When they got back to the apartment, Peter kissed Robin and said, "How about you go and sit down, and I'll go get us some popcorn. We can watch a movie or something."

Robin smiled. "I'd like that a lot. I'll go change clothes, into something more comfortable." Peter nodded and they parted ways. She had just gotten to her room when the power went off. She took a deep breath to calm herself, then called out.

"Peter?" No reply. Frowning, she went back downstairs. "Peter?" Still no answer. A search proved he was not in the kitchen, nor any of the lower level of the apartment. She was certain she would have heard if he had come upstairs after her.

"PETER! Come ON, this ISN'T FUNNY!" She yelled, but her boyfriend didn't answer. On the verge of panicking, she went into the living room. She curled herself on the couch and began trying to calm herself. "Ok, Robin, it's ok. The power went off, and Peter's off trying to get it back on. No big deal."

Just as she had calmed herself down, she heard the creaking of a door opening. She looked around and saw the door, and it was opening easily enough, but there was no one there. Robin's eyes widened in terror and she bolted upstairs to her room, and shut the door. Cowering into her bed, she wished her bedroom door would lock.

Moments later she heard footsteps coming up the stairs and she flung the covers over her head in desperation. She heard her door opening and a breathy, ghost-like voice whisper.

"You can't hide, Robin. We're coming for you."

She nearly screamed, but bit her tongue. She could hear at least 2 sets of footsteps approaching. As she huddled under the covers, memories of her childhood and the Bogeyman crowding her thoughts, the covers were whipped off of her and she felt something grab her wrists and ankles, forcing her to lay spread-eagled, though not hurting her. A third figure stood by the bed. It was wearing a black, hooded robe, and the hands that held her didn't feel remotely human, nor were the ones that reached out from the third figures robe. As she watched in helpless horror, it slowly lowered it's hands toward her. She was sure it was going to try to choke her, but just before its hands reached her throat, it veered and…

…started tickling her under the ribs. She shrieked in laugher despite her fear, as she was extremely ticklish. The thing holding her wrists tickled under her arms, and the creature holding her ankles gently ran it's fingertips along the bottom of her feet. The sensation was so strong it took her a minute to realize her captors were laughing almost as hard as she was. A look of amused indignation replaced the terror on her features immediately.

"PETER VENKMAN, RAY STANTZ, AND EGON SPENGLER, YOU DIE TODAY!!" She yelled, reaching up and ripping the mask off of the captor on her bed, revealing Ray. He looked worried for a minute, then his fiendish grin returned in full force.

"GET HER!" Peter yelled from near her head, and the tickling began again. But this time, she fought back.

_-!-!-!-_

By this time the Ghostbusters had tears of mirth on their faces, from Ray's description of the look on Robin's face Winston would have given most anything to be there—with a camera.

"Laugh it up, boys," she said, barely containing her own laughter. Peter grinned impishly.

"You know, Robin…" he said slowly in a tone that made Robin eye him suspiciously and back away, "I'm curious to know if you're….still TICKLISH!" On the last word, he lunged at her, the other three not far behind him. As they tickled mercilessly, she howled in laughter, laughter that Peter hadn't heard in 2 long years…

As they finally let up, Robin gave a wicked grin of her own. "Ok, we've told him about scaring Egon, Ray, and Me. Now it's YOUR turn in the hot seat, Peter." Peter raised an eyebrow.

"And what, pray tell, did you ever do to me that could hold a match to what we did to you in that last story?" He asked calmly.

Robin, Ray and Egon looked at each other and grinned. "Egon," Robin began, "You tell it. I'm not sure I could get through without laughing too hard."

"Very well. This took place about a month later…"

_-!-!-!-_

It was a Saturday night, and the four friends were bored. They were flipping through the channels and couldn't find any decent movies. Finally, Robin spoke up.

"Well, I could go rent some movies if you guys want… my treat," she said tiredly. The others readily agreed, so she set out to the movie rental place down the street. She returned 20 minutes later with 3 movies.

"Ok, I don't know about you but I'm in the mood for a good horror movie. I got 3, we can pop one in without looking at it so we won't know what to expect. Ok?"

The others nodded warily, they weren't fond of horror movies, as one of them always ended up scared and, later, embarrassed. However, they knew it was an instant victory for Robin if they spoke up, so they decided to grin and bear it. Smiling, she popped the first movie in. As the title came up, Robin, Egon, and Ray glanced at Peter, who paled. It seemed Robin had picked out a movie about giant killer cockroaches. Peter, of course, hated the things.

After the movie was over, Peter was valiantly trying not to show that the movie had scared him out of his wits, especially in front of his girlfriend. However, he didn't quite succeed. In a voice that still had a small quiver, he said, "I'm tired. I'm gonna go to bed now, we can watch the rest tomorrow." With that, he went upstairs and to his room. He lay down, slightly jumpy at any little sound, but he soon fell asleep.

He awoke hours later. It was still the dead of night, but he was wide awake. Before he could get up, however, he felt something grab his wrists, and his ankles. A cloth was put over his eyes, but he heard a sinister voice whispering.

"You can't escape them Peter. They can survive earthquakes, and even having their head chopped off. They're crawling on you right now, even."

To Peter's horror, he DID feel something crawling around, up his arms, down his bare chest—Damn, he wished he wore pajamas—finally, up toward his face. He shuddered, trying to get it off, but to no avail. The thing crawled up his neck and onto his face, over his thankfully closed mouth, and toward his blindfold. As it reached the blindfold, it suddenly disappeared, as did the cloth itself. He blinked, and saw Robin snickering above him, with Egon by his head and Ray by his feet. His eyes widened.

"Where is it? Where's the cockroach?" he asked hurriedly. Robin gently stroked his hair, the kindness rather belittled by the fact that she was still snickering.

"Easy, Peter. It wasn't a cockroach. I don't like them either, you honestly think I'd place one on you—handle one myself just to scare you? Hell No!" She took her fingernails and gently ran them down his arm, giving the sensation that something was crawling on him. His eyes widened even more.

"Where'd you learn that? That's a handy trick!" He said, impressed despite himself. She smirked.

"You pick up a few things when you have an older brother who loves to scare people senseless," she said smugly.

_-!-!-!-_

Winston was staring at Peter in shock. "You're scared of roaches THAT BAD? Damn, I didn't know it was more than a small fear!" Peter rolled his eyes.

"I'd like to see you watch a movie that scared you and then try to sleep when it felt like it was coming true!" He said indignantly.

The others were still snickering at him, so Peter stood up with as much dignity as he could muster.

"Well, my reaction was no worse than Robin's or Ray's," he said triumphantly. This just caused more laughter.

After they had all calmed down, Peter turned to Robin. "Where are you staying at?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I came by here first, to see you. I was planning on getting a hotel for the night, until I could find an apartment—" She was cut off by Peter.

"Hey, no friend of mine stays in a HOTEL when they're in town! Stay here as long as you need!" He said happily. The others agreed instantly.

"Your timing is most impeccable," Egon said, "Since we are taking this next week off. Winston had plans to visit his family for the first part of the week, but the rest of us were just going to take it easy around here. You're welcome to join us."

"Wow, thanks. Man, it'll feel just like college, huh?" She said happily and not without a mischievous glint.

"Uh, yeah," Peter said nervously. "I'm going to bed now, see you guys in the morning." He went upstairs without another word. Robin grinned evilly at Ray and Egon.

"I think he just volunteered himself for the first victim of the prank war revisited."

Ray grinned and Egon's eyes got a mischievous spark. Ray spoke up. "What did you have in mind?"

Peter was lying in bed, thinking about the memories seeing Robin had brought back. Meeting Egon and Ray, the pranks they pulled on each other—no matter what, he would NEVER forget Ray's face when he realized they had pranked him. In shock, then sheer joy at being accepted in this, admittedly odd, way. As he lay thinking about it, he suddenly felt a strong, cold wind whip his hair around.

"Odd," he thought. "The window isn't open." As the breeze died down, gloved hands suddenly clamped around his mouth. A dark, hooded figure slowly came into the room and towards him.

In a low, throaty voice it said, "Peter Venkman. We have come. Come to warn you."

Peter, unable to ask what it meant, raised an eyebrow in question. The figure chuckled. It leaned in extremely close.

"Warn you of what, you ask?" It said. In a very different (and familiar) voice, it said, "Of the new prank war of course!" As it spoke the last, it reached up and removed the hood, revealing Robin, laughing merrily. From beside his head, Peter could hear Ray and Egon chuckling.

Peter groaned. "Alright. You got me. But remember—you haven't had any practice over the last two years. We have. Be warned—and let the prank war begin!"


End file.
